^^ Very very nice. I know I get baited by that kinda shit a lot. Good to know. That move seems to have some strange priority at random times. Ive seen it beat early dp’s and make late ones whiff. Ive been trying to find a use for j.mk or j.lk in that match and I cant seem to find any.
ok, I wanted to help out with the blanka match-up since its so difficult, so I decided to head to training mode and see just what T.hawk Can do against all versions of the horizontal blanka ball.
I tested out the majority of T.hawk’s normals against all balls, and if there’s one move that actually has a high success rate in stuffing all balls, it would be to mash cr.lp as if you’re boxer. most of the time (lets say at leas 90% chance) you will stuff all versions near or far without fear of trading or getting beaten out (only exception is EX). do not try to TIME the counter poke, simply crouch and mash the lp button to make T.hawk cr.lp as rapidly as possible. its the only reliable way to discourage reckless horizontal balls because it will almost never be beat. in SF2, T.hawk has to do a similar strategy, only in that game there was basically 0% chance of lp being beat. here, with all versions but EX, lp wins most of the time, but has a chance to trade or get out in between jabs.
EX blanka ball has the highest chance of trading or hitting in-between jabs, but it still loses clean to jabs in general. I tested the how often your chances of losing to it while spamming cr.lp across the screen out of ten attempts. 7 balls were stopped clean, 1 ball traded, and 2 got through. the chances of it not getting through are in your favor. so your strategy to approach is walking forward, while periodically spamming this move to avoid getting smacked by random balls.
other normals can out right beat horizontal blanka ball, but its really to difficult to time them. the only some what mentionable ones are mp and mk, and maybe cr.mk for trying to stuff stopping lp horizontal blanka balls. this would require guessing though, so I can’t recommend to use it often, but at the right range, there will be no trade.
jumping normals can aslo beat horizontal blanka ball. if your going to try that, do it jumping backwards, away from blanka. best jmuping normals that stop blanka balls are j.mp, j.hp, and j.splash. they all have their onw application I suppose, j.splash would win in places where j.mp and j.hp wouldn’t (such as if you are landing with blanka ball going slightly past you) but it will also trade in places where the other two normals wouldn’t (the normals would outright win). be judicious in deciding what’s best, but if you wanna be lazy, just try splash, it has the highest success rate in that you will almost always AT LEAST get a trade. Edit: also just found out j.d.mp elbow will stuff it if Hawk falls on the ball with the elbow.
finally, there’s special moves. condor dive CAN beat horizontal blanka ball, but I highly suggest you don’t risk this: its very volatile. you can’t grab blanka when he’s doing ball (obviously) so that’s no good too. condor spire will either trade or stuff all blanka balls. I can’t recommend any version in specific, but I would advise you not to waste EX bar if you attempt it in most cases, because it doesn’t seem to have a higher success rate then regular CS. and finally, all versions tomahawk buster outright beat all versions of horizontal blanka ball. they all have their own quirks, but find the DP that you like best based on timing and whatever, even timed lp DP has no problem stopping balls. I prefer HP in some instances and lp in others (usually when I’m closer). EX DP is super safe as well, since there’s basically no chance of trade.
now that I got that out of the way, random tidbits for you. you cannot punish blocked blanka balls in way, so don’t bother. this may be impractical knowledge but you can grab blanka out of his very few start-up frames when he’s performing blanka balls. that’s it for my horizontal blanka ball tests.
sorry I don’t have the competition around me to fight a good blanka player and know his tricks, but I hope this raw data can be of some help.
How the fuck do you get in on Gouken? Fighting him is ridiculously hard!
Not a T. Hawk player, but as a Dhalsim player, if Condor Dive is ever blocked, it’s a free Ultra 2 for Dhalsim. The same could probably be done on a missed dive if they react quickly enough.
idk if this is new or even worth, but you can punish blanka balls with condor spire using the invul frames on it. just before the ball hits you do condor spire.
I have the same problem, haha. I fought one recently, and it was clear we were both unfamiliar with the match-up. While at first it was easy to get some damage in, given his habit of trying to do that parry move vs. jump-ins - which empty jump SPD taught him not to try - at some point he went on the defensive. And that’s when we both found out that his fireball game eats… Hawk… alive.
The main problem, in my experience, is that his diagonal FB actually hits a standing Hawk in the face from about 3/4 screen away. Which means he hardly has to bother with the usual FB / d.FB guessing game. He can just spam the hell out of the diagonal one to keep you out pretty handily.
whiff lp spd/spire to build meter from a safe distance. get one bar of ex. then gouken can’t just spam fireballs anymore.
Honestly with Gouken you just have to sit there in downback position and slowly walk forward, blocking fireballs. Once you are in range to actually focus attack and punish them, do so. Focus attack into and SPD, DP something just base it on the way they react, I usually dig for an option select SPD so that if they try to throw me im safe. Make matchs with Gouken long, to test his paitence. You can SPD his Dragon Punch like move when he approchs you. If they are stupid enough to try to close distance with you, DP them.
If you understand max rangers use that to your advantage but that can stuff Firebals during the startup.
Matchup is not really hard, just takes forever.
I’m incredibly frustrated. My friend plays Ken and Cody and he just jumps all day long (mostly backwards). It’s really hard to beat him air to air, especially Ken’s HK, but what’s worse is when he jumps in on me. My reaction time is good enough to get the DP started, but it always trades because of its crappy priority so that’s not a good option.
What’s the best thing I can do against constant jump in HK’s from Cody/Ken?
crouch fp
cl.mp
backdash ex 360
Crouch fierce seems to trade just as much as DP.
Close mp? Won’t he have already hit me by the time he gets in range for close MP to come out?
Backdash 360 works occasionally but it is very spacing dependent. A lot of the time I try to back dash and I still get hit because I was too close when he jumped forward.
Yeah damage-wise the trade isn’t awesome for Hawk even though he has more health. Just roll with it. Also once you get within a certain range c.HP loses to a lot less shit. I dunno if Ken’s j.HP would do better at that range (Otherwise it has a much better hitbox than shoto j.HK) but it sounds like your friend doesn’t use it.
The trade is always in your favor? Whats the problem?
Are you sure about that?
Crouch HP has to hit twice for full damage, and if it trades it only gets one of the hits. I think Hawk would be on the losing end of the damage versus a jump HK.
Hey gridman, I was watching some matches from summer jam and Art gave you credit for having the best Hawk in the world. 
@Humpski: Only by about 10 damage or so, and the opponent is reset pretty close to Hawk. Hence why I said it’s only in the opponent’s favor damage-wise.
One little, somewhat counter-intuitive, thing I’m missing for the accursed Blanka match-up is the fact that you can SPD them out of electricity-spam. Basically just get as close as possible, and nab them.
I was experimenting in training mode and from what it seems (I may just be crazy) HP Tomahawk buster works way better than LP TB… I would have assumed that the HP version would have had too much start up frames, but half of the time it looked like his jump in HK passed through me without hitting and he got smacked by the TB. If I tried the same thing with LP TB, I would trade or lose.
Is this how it is, or is my testing method just off and I’m wrong about this?
lol nah HP DP has a way better hitbox. It’s only 3 frames slower which isn’t a huge deal. imho it’s better if you do it relatively early, and at the range where c.HP wouldn’t work well.
LP DP’s first active frame (4 frame startup): http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h302/Hoblin/T%20Hawk%20DP/LPDP-ActiveFrame1.png
MP DP’s first active frame (5 frame startup): http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h302/Hoblin/T%20Hawk%20DP/MPDP-ActiveFrame1.png
HP DP’s first active frame (7 frame startup): http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h302/Hoblin/T%20Hawk%20DP/HPDP-ActiveFrame1.png
Sweet. Looks like I’ll try HP tomahawk buster next time I play him. I’ll post the results.
Now I just need to figure out a way to defend against Ken’s MK poke… sometimes I can catch him with Hawk dive if I predict it early enough but trying to read his mind isn’t reliable enough. Focus attack doesn’t seem to work too well either. I have to predict, same as dive otherwise my focus is too slow and I get crouching MK’ed after the MK poke.